Two things I noticed within the first 30 seconds of analyzing: (1) The ♖f1 is the only thing stopping ...♘f2+, forking king and queen; (2) The Black Queen is indirectly attacking the ♖f1. Looking for a "brute force" move to change the situation, possibly to affect the above listed elements -- I found it!

26...♖e1!!

This must have come as a shocker (assuming that I'm correct), but it works for two reasons: (1) 27. ♖xe1 allows the knight fork we were looking for, and (2) 27. ♗xe1 or 27. ♘xe1 interferes with the White queen's protection of the ♖f1.

Gilmoy: <22..Qa6 24..Nd3> nicely illustrates the intermediate principle that the strength of your position is proportional to the number of <intersection of lines of force>, not merely material point count. Black plants a forward N for later mayhem (at f2 :), evoking R Byrne vs Fischer, 1963<10.Ba6 14.Nd3>.

sevenseaman: <Gilmoy><<22..Qa6 24..Nd3> nicely illustrates the <intermediate principle that the strength of your position is proportional to the number of <intersection of lines of force>>>

<intersections of lines of force>? Say b5-f1 is one of the lines of force of the Black Q. What all does it do and which other friendly lines of force does it intersect? How do we use these intersections?

Could you please be more lucid, more scrutable, illustrating your point with a couple of examples, possibly less cluttered.

This leads me to believe that I must have seen this game before, so ...

I go to my library, I have both the hard-back and soft-cover book on this event, there is a bookmark in the book, on page # 61. Apparently, I was studying Jones-Portisch the last time I picked this book up ... which must have been at least a few years ago ... usually, I can remember what I was doing when studying chess, however, I don't recall this at all.

The book is: "The 1974 World Chess Olympiad," (in Nice, France) by Raymond Keene and David Levy. [(c) 1975 / ISBN: #0-89058-205 / ICCN: 74-29705]; Game # 97, page # 136. (I even have a page of hand-written notes from the 1970's that we made at chess club on this game, this is in my soft-cover book - which is pretty badly marked up.) BTW, Keene has several nice games in this book, I did not check, but I am sure they must be on this website.

Today, the Pensacola Chess Club meets at the "Book-A-Million," on N. Davis Hwy. Back then, we met at PJC or Baptist Hospital.

I am pretty sure that this book is out of print, but (in my mind); its one of the best books ever made on ANY Olympiad ... they don't do this kind of quality stuff anymore. Here is a link, in case you actually would like to try and find a copy of this book - "Abe's Book's" is usually pretty good. (https://www.google.com/#hl=en&cp=45...)

CHESSTTCAMPS: Material is even, with black having the more active pieces and control of the open e-file. The white rook is the only defender preventing a royal fork at f2, suggesting a move that might divert the rook.

26... Re1!! places the rook on the square that seems to be the best defended in white territory, winning decisive material.

Gilmoy: <sevenseaman: Say b5-f1 is one of the lines of force of the Black Q. What all does it do and which other friendly lines of force does it intersect?>

It depends where your other pieces are. (Really, that's the point.) It's a way to think holistically, to maximize the benefit of teamwork between 2+ pieces.

"Lines of force" is simply the reachable squares of each of your pieces. Where two lines intersect, that means either of your pieces would be protected by the other one if you moved it there. That, in turn, gives you mobility to advance a plan, or shop for tactics that are nastier than your opponent's.

He who gets forward first often gets an advantage in space or initiative. In the newbie form, chess has many 1-piece maxims like <rusty nail in the kNe6> or <rook on the 7th>, or conversely <best defender of a castled K>. At intermediate levels, we decompose those advantages into multi-move plans that can force them on an unwilling opponent. "Intersections" are a key mechanism, because they can build toward winning the tempo to get the first piece that deep.

Learning the game 1 piece at a time, we quickly grasp the idea: <put it on its strongest square>, which generally means controlling the most squares: R on (half-)open file, Bs on long diagonals or pinning f7/f2, Ns not-rimward. To improve, we progress to thinking multiple pieces at a time, and go for positions with criss-crosses.

The strongest "criss-cross" is 2 line movers on the same line: we call that a "battery", and it's well-known as "when in doubt, double your rooks", or Q-B vs Dragon-like anything. Later, we grok that it would be more of a (mating) threat to have the Q in front, ergo it can be wise to invest a move to get your Bs behind -- which becomes the <GM bishop thing>, e.g. Bd3-Bb1.

The epitome of this idea, and very rare OTB, is the battery fork, or "double-double":

- E. (5.5 stars) Alice moves her Q onto <both lines> simultaneously. Now she has 2 dots on each, and that's the same fork. It's much harder to pull off, since it presumes both a rook lift <and> a bishop thing, and that those were the two best (or at least very good) single-piece moves at those times.

It follows that the weakest criss-cross (that you can still plan for) is B+N, since they intersect in at most 2 squares, and only every other N move. (N+N is even rarer, so you basically cannot plan to achieve it -- although Gerard Welling tries with his goofball Nf3-Nd2-Nf1-Ne3 for a double-Nd5 :) But because of that, B+N coordination becomes critically important in all openings, and separates the noobs from the tyros.

Working backward, this drives a great deal of opening theory, esp. Nc3-Bg2-Nd5, Colle System's overprotect-and-erupt on e4, Nimzo-Indian Nf6-Bb4-Ne4 to not let White do what he wants to do, Shirov's wacky g4 "sac" vs Sicilian K-side castling (and why nobody ever takes that pawn), and Nimzo-Larsen Attack 1.b3 promising a heavy dogpile on g7. All of these exploit criss-crosses to control (or blow up) the center, sometimes with an eye toward midgame attack potential.

Then since everybody just memorizes openings, good players further stratify by finding midgame repostings of B+N. Carlsen strikes me as particularly obnoxious at this (or maybe it's just book in his English/QID lines :) Fischer's <10..Ba6 14..Nd3> is a prime example: as a bottleneck, it thoroughly stymies White's Q, winning a tempo to play a precisely-calculated line. (In other words, he didn't do it just to do it, since objectively he's losing B+N for R -- but it gave him a springboard for tactics, and he saw it all the way to a winning attack.)

<How do we use these intersections?> Generally, you plant a piece where your opponent can't take it (yet). Then your piece sits in his backfield and hurts something for 1 tempo, and as he puts out fire on board, board burns faster.

Mnemonic: Every protected piece was an intersection before it got there!

chrisowen: The whippletree Re1 lambast i on good hop piece tacks not it rook over then nf2 forking queen a gul has current eaves drop bishop orthodox mop top roll share nb2 picks up her monach scope reduced ;0

The swingletree d3 roundabout it equalizer d5 then dark horse harries on dive Jones and JD ok! Old DJ sardines.

BOSTER: <Gllmoy><intermediate priciple that the strength of your position is proportional to the number of intersection of lines of force>.
It would be nice if you give any source, supporting this theory.

NOTE: You need to pick a username and password to post a reply.
Getting your account takes less than a minute, totally anonymous,
and 100% free--plus, it
entitles you to features otherwise unavailable.
Pick your username now and join the chessgames community!
If you already have an account, you should
login now.

Please observe our posting guidelines:

No obscene, racist, sexist, or profane language.

No spamming, advertising, or duplicating posts.

No personal attacks against other users.

Nothing in violation of United States law.

See something that violates our rules? Blow the whistle and inform an administrator.

NOTE: Keep all discussion on the topic of this page.
This forum is for this specific game and nothing else. If you want to discuss chess in general, or
this site, you might try the Kibitzer's Café.

Messages
posted by Chessgames members do not necessarily represent the views of Chessgames.com, its employees, or sponsors.